In the following review, Goodman contends that Irving uses an effective blend of violence, horror, and humor in The World according to Garp.

T. S. Garp is a writer, and so The World According to Garp is, naturally, an exploration of the way the novelist turns life into fiction. But it is considerably more than that. Garp's imagination is no one-way street. It doubles back upon itself, and affects life as well as art. As a writer, Garp is able to control his imagination, more or less, and make it work for him. As a son, husband, lover, father, however, he is as much in its grip as the characters in his novels and short stories. (Examples of these, by the way, are printed here, and show T. S. Garp to have a considerable offbeat talent, just...